Uganda clerics have done a good job but known thieves taint their cause
Tuesday June 07 2022
Though they can argue that it isn’t their mandate, clerics' failure or unwillingness to call to order known thieves in their congregations is a growing stain on their credibility. ILLUSTRATION | JOSEPH NYAGAH | NMG
It had been three years since multitudes flocked to Uganda Martyrs Shrine of Namugongo, east of Kampala City, for the annual pilgrimage, on Friday.
June 3 is always a public holiday in Uganda, a day when the nation and visitors from near and far honour dozens of young religious converts who were executed in 1885-86 on the King of Buganda’s orders. Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, the big celebrations did not take place in 2020 and 2021.
Save for reminding the public to observe measures to prevent transmission of the respiratory infections, the Uganda government fully opened up the country this year and preparations for the pilgrimage to Namugongo started in earnest.
A couple of weeks back, stories and pictures circulated of pilgrims as old as 80 and as young as 10 setting off from faraway towns, hitting the road to walk hundreds of kilometres to Namugongo, the site of the executions 145 years ago, when the converts were burnt alive. The treks show that, indeed, the martyrs didn’t die in vain, for Christianity and, yes, Islam, have really deepened.
But cynics also pointed out — on social media, of course, where else — that the faithful started the pilgrimage weeks earlier while the bishops waited till the final day to do their pilgrimage in their powerful SUVs. For the highways are now so good that no diocese is more than six hours from Kampala.
So what does the report card for modern religion, which displaced African traditional beliefs, really look like? Pretty good, one can say. In terms of numbers, over 90 percent of Uganda subscribe to either Christianity and Islam. Even the boss of the traditionalists goes by the name Phina – short for Josephine – though she prefers to marry Muslim guys from time to time.
But though the numbers look good, the actual practice of modern religion is still wanting. Much of the preaching you hear around instils more fear than love and demeans other denominations, actually demonises them. And there is the matter of being economic with the truth.
Before the Covid outbreak discontinued the Namugongo pilgrimages, bishops had started saying that the June 3 prayers attract two, then three million people to gather at the place! No stretch of sober imagination can fit even a million people in Namugongo grounds. The entire Kampala city’s population, according to the City Executive Director’s tweet, is 1.8 million. Three million would mean fitting seven percent of Uganda’s population in a large sports stadium!
Otherwise religious bodies have done the country a lot of good. When it comes to promotion and provision of social services, the churches did a fantastic job. Establishment of schools was almost exclusively done by them. Muslims also later set up pretty good secular schools, open to all denominations. The government after independence started taking over — and supporting — the schools, and only in the last few years has it started implementing a policy of establishing secondary schools instead of just taking over those started by the congregations.
But, after allowing the government into their schools, the religious leaders, who remain influential in the management of the said schools by virtue of being the “foundation bodies,” have abdicated the whole idea of social justice.
Today, the good schools they set up to provide education on merit have become a preserve of the rich, and you don’t want to know where much of the richness comes from — corruption. There is no policy or practice through which a poor but brilliant child can be assured of attending such schools, thanks to exorbitant fees charged. It defeats understanding why they are called government or public schools.
For health services, the score is high, both for the earlier years till today. The faith-based hospitals were always set up to provide medical care at the lowest possible cost and it remains the case.
In the large, difficult Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda, for example, the religious founded Matany Hospital is the de facto regional referral hospital and recognised as such by the government. And it charges peanuts.
On the whole, therefore, the religious groups have done a good job. Their biggest weakness remains inability to punish wrongdoing.
Though they can argue that it isn’t their mandate, their failure or unwillingness to call to order known thieves in their congregations is a growing stain on their credibility. But, overall, they have done a good job and June 3 is worth celebrating.
Joachim Buwembo is a Kampala-based journalist. E-mail: [email protected]